CAT for Horses

 
By Laurel Gordon
The fearful horse benefits most from the CATH approach.
Based on a definition of CATH by Dolores Arste and Kellie Snyder.
While working on her Masters thesis behavioural science student Kellie Snyder noticed that positive reinforcement methods like clicker training or giving food treats didnt work so well on animals when there was a lot of fear involved. With the help of her professor Dr RosalesRuiz they devised a way to work with aggressive dogs who hadnt responded to any amount of positive reinforcement training and sometimes years of this and other training.

He called this idea CAT Constructional Aggression Treatment but with his approval for horses we have slightly changed the name to CATH Constructional Approach Training for Horses.
In the CAT treatment they used the reinforcer reward which the dog was already working for. When the dog was aggressive people or other dogs normally and not surprisingly moved away.
This was his reward because what he MOST wanted was distance from the object of his fear. However during CAT the outcome he wanted was given only when he behaved in safe friendly or calm ways. This meant his needs were still being met but he wasnt putting the lives of others or his own life at risk any more. In effect he was now in control of his environment and this is very empowering for a fearful animal But a funny thing happens in the treatment. He learns to LIKE being calm and friendly.
The experimental question asked whether aggression could be reduced by taking away something the dog didnt like another dog or a person called a decoy at a time when he was not being aggressive. This dog or person was introduced in a very nonconfronting way always trying to stay below the point where the animal reacted and the decoy would move away as the reward but only when the animal showed any sign of being more relaxed.
They found out more than their questions asked that they not only ended up with animals that tolerated the strangers they were once aggressive toward but ended up with them actually being friendly toward the strangers and calm where they used to be scared. This has been successfully replicated with feral cats birds llamas cows and now even reptiles too.
Long time